Utopia is a work of political philosophy by the English statesman and scholar Sir Thomas More, first published in 1516. The title Utopia is derived from Greek, meaning “no place” or “nowhere,” and the book presents a detailed account of an idealized society on a fictional island called Utopia, offering a critique of the political, social, and economic systems of 16th-century Europe. Utopia is considered one of the foundational texts of Western political philosophy and a precursor to the genre of dystopian fiction and utopian literature, influencing thinkers and writers from the Renaissance through to the modern era.